Columbus district sells old school buildings for $3.2 million

Columbus school attendance scandal

Columbus City Schools employees -- and perhaps others in schools throughout the state -- are accused of falsifying students' records to improve their schools' standing on state report cards. Read the complete series.

More Articles

The Columbus Board of Education sold three vacant school buildings last night, including a
historical middle school a block from German Village’s Schiller Park that sold for about half what
the county auditor says it’s worth.

The district sold the Barrett Middle School building at 345 E. Deshler Ave. for $2.6 million to
the Columbus Housing Partnership, a nonprofit that provides affordable housing. The
73,400-square-foot building, built in 1905, sits on almost 6 acres.

The board voted 5-2 to move forward with the sale, with board member Mike Wiles arguing that the
decision should have been put off for 90 days to study whether the district would have enough
middle-school space if redevelopment efforts on the South Side prove successful. Member W. Shawna
Gibbs also voted no.

“I don’t know if they would be willing to wait for 90 days,” said the district’s facilities
chief, Carole Olshavsky.

Olshavsky said after the meeting that no other developers showed an interest in the building and
that the district negotiated solely with Columbus Housing Partnership, which plans to redevelop
Barrett for apartments or condominiums. The district will retain the right to use a softball field
used by South High School students at no cost for one year, Olshavsky said.

Barrett has been vacant for seven years and was declared surplus property by the board in May
2012. No one attended a required public auction, allowing the district to enter private
negotiations with developers, Olshavsky said.

The price was arrived at because it was the buyer’s offer and is the market rate, Olshavsky
said.

“There’s not much else you can do with it,” she said. “It can’t be used for commercial
purposes."

The board also sold two other vacant schools for $300,000 each: Fair Elementary at 1395 Fair
Ave. and Kent Elementary at 1414 Gault St. Both buildings are just east of Downtown and will be
used by charter schools.

In other business, the board moved forward with its plan to bring the bus transportation
operation of private vendor First Student in house by approving the issuance of $27.5 million in
bonds to purchase up to 300 school buses and “other equipment used in transporting students.”

Two weeks ago, the board voted to end its contract with First Student and provide transportation
for Columbus students in charter and private schools by hiring union bus drivers who will be
district employees. The district says it can save $10.6 million over three years by bringing the
state-mandated operation in house.

The board voted to purchased 300 buses for $26.1 million last month.

Also yesterday, the board went into a private meeting for more than two hours, citing a
provision allowing it to close the meeting to consider the employment, dismissal or compensation of
an employee or “the investigation of charges or complaints” about an employee. Robert “Buzz”
Trafford, the outside attorney who has been advising the board on its ongoing student-data scandal,
was seen leaving the meeting.